‘Biggest Loser’: Time for players to give back

After 15 weeks of learning how to become more fit, the "Biggest Loser" players received an opportunity to share their knowledge when they flew to Dallas to meet fans and run a 5K race. Additionally, trainers Jillian and Bob spread the word to students and held a group workout for Texas fans of the show.

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But just because the players were off the Ranch, that didn’t mean the game was on pause.

Daris, Ashley and Michael, the lone surviving members of their original couple teams, made a pact to start working out together and support one another. They recognized that the closeness of the Gray team’s Koli and Sam and the Yellow team’s Sunshine and O’Neal gave the other four players an emotional and statistical advantage at eliminations.

Daris, Ashley and Michael vowed to keep their alliance a secret from the other teams.

At the week’s reward challenge, which asked all the contestants to be a cowboy for a day, they needed all the help they could get. The contestants were challenged to corral as many live calves as they can in the allotted time. The player who scored the highest received the best prize on Biggest Loser: immunity at the weigh-in.

True to the fears of the single players, Koli and Sam immediately began working together to earn Koli the reward, while Sunshine resolved to help her father O’Neal win. Although Michael put his muscle behind Daris about halfway through the challenge, it was too little, too late.

With some help from his cousin, Koli walked away with the win and immunity at the week’s challenge.

He had no idea he would actually need that immunity. However, when he stepped on the scale at the week’s weigh-in, he discovered that his week in Texas didn’t help his waistline. Koli only lost 1 pound. Fortunately, the immunity he won kept him from being put up for elimination.

Working out together seemed to have had a good effect on Daris, Ashley and Michael. They all dropped enough weight to stay above the yellow line. Michael, who began the season as the show’s heaviest contestant ever, was elated to discover he had lost an additional 15 pounds, meaning that he is just 17 pounds away from dropping a whopping 200 pounds total.

The scale wasn’t so kind to father/daughter team O’Neal and Sunshine, who missed the week’s “last chance workout” because they had to fly home for the funeral of his brother. Retuning to the weigh-in just hours before he stepped on the scale, O’Neal lost 5 pounds. His daughter Sunshine dropped an additional 4 pounds. Sadly it was not enough to keep them out of the danger zone and both were put up for elimination.

But in O’Neal’s mind there was no question which one of them should go home. “Please respect me as I have always respected you,” O’Neal pleaded with the other players. “I want every one of your votes to go to me.” The remaining players showed their respect and voted O’Neal, at 51 the oldest remaining player, out of the game.

Weigh-in: Did the players do the right thing by sending O’Neal home instead of Sunshine?